Charlotte Knights

13

There's really not a lot to this name, nor to this logo. Not that that's a bad thing in this case. Just keep reading, you'll see.

As for the name, it comes from the city's nickname. Charlotte's nickname is the Queen City. (Yes, I know that's also Cincinnati's nickname. No, I don't know if this means there is some dispute as to the rightful heir to the throne. I'm not even sure what throne they might be fighting over, if indeed they are fighting over a throne.) When NBA Charlotte Hornets owner bought the AA Charlotte Orioles and decided to rebrand them (perhaps in preparation for an affiliation change that happened one year later), he decided to give the team a name with royal associations. Charlotte Queens probably wouldn't have gone over very well with the players or the fans, and apparently Shinn thought Charlotte Kings was too arrogant or something. Anyway, he settled on Charlotte Knights. It's not the most original name, but it's hard to deny that it checks a lot of boxes in the associations-you-want-your-team-to-have department: bravery, strength, honor, et cetera. It's still a little bit generic and I'm not quite willing to give them the Local bonus for this, but it's a solid name in any case.

As for the logo, it's got a knight's helmet (properly known as a close helmet since the wearer's head is fully enclosed). What more do you want? The three peaks on the crown of the helmet seem a bit odd, but they're not fanciful: actual close helmets had embellishments that were even odder than this (I found one from Seventeenth Century France that has a little dragon resting atop it). The background is shaped like home plate, which I find slightly irritating, but they needed something behind the helmet, and it's better than just having a circle or a diamond for the background.

So, yeah, it's all fairly basic stuff. But it works. There are a lot of teams out there who could stand to have a logo that was more basic than what they currently have but actually worked.

Final Score: 13 points.
Penalties: Equipment, 13 pts.
Bonuses: None.